Prince Edward Island National Park

Pulling in thousands of visitors every summer, the gorgeous sandy beaches of Prince Edward Island National Park extend along the north shore for some 40km. Rarely more than a couple of hundred metres wide, the main body of the park incorporates both the beaches and the sliver of low red cliff and marram grass-covered sand dune that runs behind – a barrier which is occasionally interrupted by slender inlets connecting the ocean with a quartet of chubby little bays. A narrow road runs behind the shoreline for most of its length, but Rustico Bay effectively divides the main body of the park into two: the smaller, more westerly portion runs from Cavendish – home of Green Gables – to North Rustico Harbour; the easterly section, which is wilder and more untrammelled, goes from Robinson’s Island to Tracadie Bay, with a third, smaller section lying further east still at Greenwich, at the mouth of St Peter’s Bay. The park has fifteen short hiking trails, easy strolls that take in different aspects of the coast from its tidal marshes and farmland to its woodlands and dunes.